In the 1 mile, one of the more thrilling City League championship races, O’Bryant’s Sean Dykens (817) defeated Charlestown’s Douglas Alvarado (692) in a photo finish by the scant margin of two one-thousandths of a second.

By Karl Capen
Globe Correspondent
February 08, 2018

The East Boston boys’ track and field team took their victory jog around the track with coach Garcia Dalzon swarmed in the middle of the pack and a smile on his face almost as wide as the Reggie Lewis Center itself, chanting “Three-peat!” along with his athletes.

For the third year in a row, the Jets stood alone atop the podium at the Boston City League championship on Wednesday after totaling 93 points over a two-day event.

“This year was kind of just putting everything together,” Dalzon said. “The team worked really hard. It was a team effort, and it was a long season. But I feel like we did everything we could to come out on top in the end.”

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It wasn’t a handful of first-place finishes that propelled East Boston to the title, but a collective effort across all events in securing team points. In the end, it was the Jets’ winning 4 x 200-meter relay team that put the icing on the cake with a resounding victory in 1 minute, 34.71 seconds.

“It just showed this year that we put in a lot of work, and a lot of effort.”

Even if the Jets stole the main event, it was O’Bryant’s Sean Dykens who took center stage during the opening act of the afternoon. Coming off his 2-mile run on Tuesday, Dykens took home the mile, defeating Charlestown’s Douglas Alvarado by the slimmest of margins — two one-thousandths of a second — after meet officials reviewed video of the finish to resolve the virtual tie (5:00.26).

O’Bryant finished third with 54 points as the Townies placed second with 79.

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Snowden’s Joel Lara was recognized as the meet’s Most Valuable performer, winning the long jump (19 feet 09 inches), 300 meter (37.02 seconds), and the 600 meter (1:26.74) to help his team to fourth with 30 points.

On the girls’ side, O’Bryant won the team title in a runaway (112 points). The Tigers’ Courtney Lambright won Most Valuable performer with first-place finishes in the 55-meter hurdles (10.27), 300 meter (44.95) and ran a leg on O’Bryant’s winning 4 x 400 relay (4:43.40.)

Snowden’s Sarah Lawton won the 1,000 meter (3:29.91) and received the award for the most outstanding performer over the course of the season.

East Boston (72), Latin Academy (67), Snowden (51), and New Mission (17) rounded out the top five.

Girls’ basketball

Notre Dame (Hingham) 54, Abington 43 — The Cougars avenged a loss from earlier this season behind 15 points and six assists from Kristin Barrett and 12 points and eight rebounds from Haley Roberts.

Blue Hills 42, Diman 33 — Jamillia Ross (Randolph) led the way for the Warriors with 14 points, and teammate Ariel Carter (Milton) chipped in 11 points from the frontcourt.

MIAA meeting

There has been no thornier issue to the collective MIAA than litigation. And the biggest headache, acknowledged executive director Bill Gaine after a two-plus hour meeting of the MIAA’s Board of Directors, “is parents taking us to court . . . not the schools” over student eligibility and the transfer waiver process.

Wednesday’s session in Franklin was a follow-up to a spirited discussion at the December meeting featuring Cohasset boys’ basketball coach Bo Ruggiero, past president of the state basketball coaches’ association, and Dick Baker, who oversees the MIAA’s eligibility/waiver process. Ruggiero argued that students were circumventing the waiver process under the guise of “school choice.” The issue, he said, will only get worse. Baker would like to see the process amended.

Currently, a transfer student-athlete only gains immediate eligibility if the principal of the “sending” school signs off on the process (Form 200).

In December, Peabody High did not sign off on a pair of transfers, Chibuikem Onwuogu and Sammy Batista, who wanted to play basketball at St. Mary’s of Lynn. Peabody alleged there was recruitment. Onwuogo got a court injunction to become eligible this season.

“Part of our internal discussion,” said Gaine, “is the fruitfulness of that mechanism [Form 200, et al], because there is evidence of breakdown, and what happens between [two schools].”

“We need to sensitize the membership about their individual and collective responsibilities,” said Gaine. “We have to stand tall.”

Two other items of note:

■ The national federation (NFHS) recently formed a partnership with eSports and is eyeing a fall launch for state associations with an interest. “There is an extraordinary amount of young people involved in this and we will explore it,” said Gaine.

■ The board unanimously approved the membership of Roxbury Prep, which opened its doors in the fall of 2015 and has an enrollment of 335 in grades 9-11. The school will field a football team in the fall.